This year, we published over 180 articles and interviews on Contemporary Lynx Online featuring compelling discussions with international artists, curators, and collectors. Thank you for being with us. Here we presented the selections of the most-read articles of this year. Let us know which one was your favourite and why you remember it.
See you in the new year!
„Artist in Focus” series:
“Artist in Focus” is a new column that shines a light on individual artists by showcasing their portfolios and artworks, exploring their inspirations and personal journeys. As our team travels to various art fairs, festivals, art weeks, and biennales, we uncover emerging talents and share their stories, giving our readers an authentic glimpse into the artists who are shaping the contemporary art world today.
This year, we featured:
Valentýna Janů — a Czech artist, creates narratives full of hope and reflectivity in her installations, films, and performances. Her suggestive installations often combine spectacular videos and video essays, completed by fabrics, materials, and objects, playfully addressing fundamental life questions and challenges. Read more
Nanna Kaiser — an artist, living and working in Vienna, who, although working with textiles and materials, likes to see her works as paintings. In her work, she skins and peels layers – literally and metaphorically. One would call her a “trickster and obsessive hunter-gatherer”, stripping down a dusty material world. Read more
Anna Hulačová — a Czech artist, who merges ancient symbolisms with contemporary art. While by combining brutalist features, such as concrete with organic forms, she points to the hybrid nature of modernity, where distant forms merge and mutate, forming a new reality. Read more
„Editor’s Choice” series:
Every year, our team takes part in a number of artistic events in various locations around the world. During our travels, we discover many new artists who make an unforgettable impression on us. In the “Editor’s Choice” series, we present artists who captivated the eye of Contemporary Lynx’s Team at various art events.
This year, we feature:
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Art Basel Paris 2024, Mystic Sugar, curated by Paulina Olowska, Pace Gallery, Booth A30. Pace Gallery booth installation views, Art Basel Paris 2024. © Pace Gallery, Photo by: Sebastian Opellion -
Kathleen Ryan, Art Basel Paris 2024. Contemporary Lynx Archive. -
Sophie Thun, Art Basel Paris 2024. Courtesy the artist and SOPHIE TAPPEINER. Photography by Julian Blum. -
Ashes/Ashes Gallery, viennacontemporary 2024. -
Installation view, Vladimir Miladinović, Viennacontemporary 2024, photo: Flavio Palasciano © Eugster || Belgrade -
Anita Schmid, Movimento Feminino, 2023, Pastel on paper, 31 1/2 × 23 3/5 × 2/5 in | 80 × 60 × 1 cm. Couretsy of the Jecza Gallery. -
Linda Lach, Endless Memory Dilation, 2024, steel, aluminium, glass, levitator module, magnet, human milk, 160 × 190 × 50 cm, detail. -
Zeller van Almsick Gallery, viennacontemporary 2024.
7 female Polish photographers you should know
This year’s edition of the Vintage Photo Festival emphasised the role of female artists in the development of the medium of analogue photography. The event explored the contemporary perception of analogue photography and photographic archives, focusing particularly on the archives of female artists after 1945.
To mark the occasion, we compiled a collection of profiles of Polish women photographers, whom every photography lover should know. The creative output of each of them represents an individual approach to working with the medium of photography. Among the artists presented in Bydgoszcz were Jagoda Przybylak, Natalia LL, Teresa Gierzyńska, Zofia Kulik, Iwona Germanek, Katarzyna Kryńska, and Magdalena Wosińska.
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Jagoda Przybylak, Anna. -
Natalia LL, Vision head 3, 1989. -
Teresa Gierzyńska, Gun from the About Her series, 1984. -
Zofia Kulik, Cappadocia porter, 1991. -
Katarzyna Kryńska, Lymph. -
Iwona Germanek, Scent. -
Magdalena Wosileńska, Changes.
Revisited and rediscovered 12 female visual artists of the 20th century.
Ready to explore the stories and groundbreaking works of 12 Polish female artists? Aleksandra Lisek uncovered how these 12 visual artists defied societal norms and revolutionized art with their new approaches to sculpture, textiles, paintings, and beyond. From the vibrant stage designs of Sara Lipska to the fluid marble sculptures of Maria Papa Rostkowska, and the dynamic paintings of Teresa Pągowska, each artist’s journey is a testament to creativity and resilience.
ASIA NOW 2024: Transformation into Ceremony.
This year, Asia Now was celebrated its 10th anniversary. On that occasion, this renowned art fair invited Nicolas Bourriaud and the cooperative Radicants to curate this edition. Under their leadership, Asia Now 2024 explored the themes of sacred and profane rituals, thus transforming its form into a ceremony.
Alexander Burenkov, the co-curator of this edition, and Kathy Alliou, curator of Sumayya Vally’s installation at Asia Now, talked to Anna Halek about the motivations of their curatorial choices, the importance of non-human agents and nature in art, and the role of air fairs in the current discourse.
12 Contemporary Photographers Rethinking Eastern Europe.
With Eastern European roots, or with direct lived experience of migration, these photographers possess an awareness of their historical legacy, intricately interwoven with the narratives and emotions inherited from their parents’ and grandparents’ generation. Their work reflects a deep-seated understanding of the past, blending tradition with modernity to illuminate their evolving contemporary reality. This nuanced perspective offers multifaceted explorations of identity, memory, and the complex socio-political tapestry of their region.
A breakthrough to the mainstream. Fifty years of Abramović’s artistic practice in one space.
This year, The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam hosted a significant event in the art world – the retrospective exhibition of conceptual and performance artist Marina Abramović. In collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, this show stands as the largest of its kind ever hosted in the Netherlands. Spanning over fifty years of Abramović’s artistic career, the exhibition presented over sixty of her works. With a strong focus on her radical performances, the show also featured diverse media, including photos, videos, and sculptures.
Yōko Ono, six decades of art displayed at Tate Modern.
Another extraordinary retrospective exhibition on our list. Yōko Ono – Music of the mind was the artist’s largest exhibition ever in England placed at Tate Modern in London. For most of the public opinion, she is the one who broke up The Beatles, and Yōko Ono was the subject of misogynistic attacks and denigrating her status as an artist. But in reality, Ono has not lived in Lennon’s shadow and has always demonstrated that she has her own artistic vision and intellectual beliefs and is still well radicated in people’s minds and in the contemporary art scene.
The exhibition set up at Tate Modern was part of what is a sort of a “rehabilitation” path of the public figure of Yōko Ono, also thanks to the recent release of Get Back, an eight-hour documentary by Peter Jackson and the retrospective at Kunsthaus in Zurich.
Top 10 most emergent Polish female visual artists, who are actively experimenting with various art forms.
Here is our list of the top 10 emerging Polish visual artists who are actively experimenting with various art forms and have already made significant contributions to the international art scene.
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Alicja Kwade, Pars pro Toto, 2017, Installation View, Viva Arte, Viva curated by Christine Macel, 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Photo by Roman März © Alicja Kwade -
Agnieszka Kurant, A.A.I. (Artificial Artificial Intelligence), 2015, “Errorism. Agnieszka Kurant” exhibition, ms1, Łódź, courtesy of the Museum. -
Goshka Macuga, Rabindranath Tagore (Blue), 2022, jesmonite and plaster 62 x 25 x 30 cm, Edition of 5, courtesy of the Kate MacGarry Gallery. -
Paulina Ołowska, School of Archery (after Deborah Tuberville), 2021, oil on canvas, 260 x 210 cm, courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York, © the artist -
Aneta Grzeszykowska, Mama, Courtesy of the Artist and Lyles & King, New York -
“Travelling Images”, Małgorzata Mirga Tas, ICC, photo by Paweł Mazur -
Monika Sosnowska, Untitled, 2006, steel and enamel paint, installation view at sprengel museum, hannover, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. -
Iza Tarasewicz, The Rumble of a Tireless Land, 2022, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland, exhibition view (Photo by Ewan Bootman / SNS Group) -
Kinga Kiełczyńska, Arch, 2023, wood and reclaimed computer motherboards 110 x 79 x 8 cm, courtesy of the Exile Gallery. -
Gizela Mickiewicz, Gestures from Afar, 2021, Polymorph plastic, perlite, pigment, 70x165x62 cm (detail) Courtesy Galeria Stereo, Warsaw. Photo by Mattia Mognetti.
Krzysztof Kieślowski: ‘First Love’ and the dramaturgy of the real.
Krzysztof Kieślowski redefined documentary filmmaking with his concept of “dramaturgy of the real,” focusing on capturing life as it happens. A great example of this is his 1974 film Pierwsza Miłość (First Love), which follows a pregnant teenager, highlighting the raw realities of young parenthood and societal pressures. Dive deeper into Kieślowski’s world with us and explore the draft script for this movie.
„Embroidery in the contemporary art from Latin America” series:
Latin American artists explore the medium of embroidery, pushing its boundaries and testing the limits of its application. Their motivations and reasons for using the art form vary widely. Some are intrigued and drawn to its traditional aspects, its connection to gendered social practices, luxury, decorative facets, folk, and indigenous craft. Others are interested in the physicality of threads and supports used in embroidery, investigating fibres and textiles to make conscious and aesthetic choices in their work.
Part 1:
12 Latin American contemporary artists who use embroidery in their art practice.
To delve deeper into how Latin American artists explore, transform, and develop their practices with embroidery, explore our guide highlighting the 12 most important creatives from the region.
Part 2:
Stitching the world anew. Embroidery in the contemporary art from Latin America.
Artists from Latin America explore embroidery quite innovatively and freely nowadays. They test this medium by stretching the limits of its employment and by experimenting with different materials used to stitch and apply on. They research the vernacular and habitual fields and methods of its usage to continue, manipulate, transcend, or subvert them.
